Adidas’ collaboration with marine conservation organization Parley for the Oceans continues with the sportswear brand’s Spring 2019 outdoor footwear line which includes two new shoes made with recycled ocean plastics.
These sneakers are the Terrex Parley DLX boat shoes and the Terrex Climacool Parley shoes. Selling for $100 and $90, respectively, the knitted uppers of both sneakers are created with yarn made from recycled waste from beaches and coastal communities, that is intercepted before it reaches the ocean. The monochrome designs of the shoes are achieved through zero-dye technology, which requires fewer chemicals as well as less energy and water.

As Adidas fans may know, these two new outdoor shoes aren’t the German company’s first mass-produced footwear created using plastic waste. First released in 2016, that sneakers are actually the Ultraboost Uncaged Parley running shoes, which currently retail for $180 a pair.

Each shoe of the Ultraboost Uncaged Parley running shoes is made up of around 5 recycled 500ml bottles’ worth of plastic. The upper part of the shoes is made from 100% PCR plastic yarn, while the 3D-printed soles and midsoles are made from recycled polyester and fill net content. The plastic used to produce the sneakers comes from Parley for the Oceans’ localized clean-up operations, which are based in the Maldives and along 1,000 coral islands off the western coast of India.
In 2017, Adidas manufactured 1 million pairs of shoes containing recycled plastic waste. In 2018, that number grew to 5 million, and now, the company plans to produce 11 million pairs of such shoes.
Following the commercial success of Ultraboost Uncaged Parley running shoes, Adidas has also begun producing apparel from recycled ocean plastics, such as the Champions League jersey for FC Bayern Munich and Alexander Zverev’s outfit for the Australian Open.
“With Adidas products made from recycled plastic, we offer our consumers real added value beyond the look, functionality and quality of the product, because every shoe is a small contribution to the preservation of our oceans,” Adidas’ global brands executive Eric Liedtke said in a statement.